As the Ventura College Pirates matched up against the Fullerton College Hornets, the Pirates prevailed 9-8, despite getting a late match comeback from the Hornets in the Men’s water polo game.
The Pirates played a solid game all around in the victory, as a well maintained offensive attack was backed up by a very strong defensive showing. The Pirates head coach, was very pleased with the way his team played towards the late half of the game.
The biggest defensive play had to come 12 seconds into the fourth quarter when Pirates No. 12 Hayden Adler stole the ball away from the Hornets and broke away and scored a goal to break a 5-5 tie. Adler then went on 29 seconds later to feed a pass in to No. 7 Tucker Zimmerman, who threw the ball in to the goal passed the Hornets goal keeper with authority to push the game up to 7-5.
The Pirates also had big offensive contributions from No. 17 Jeremy Allen. Allen came up with the goals on the day. One of the goals was off a five meter penalty shot, a rocket of a shot; the Hornets goalie could do nothing but get the ball out of the back of the net. After the penalty shot, the Pirates were leading comfortably by 3 goals, 8-5.
The Hornets, however, did everything in their power to give the Pirates a run for the money. No lead was safe as the game was scored a goal to bring the game within one goal at 9-8.
However No. 17 Allen came up with a big block to end the game, showing he was valuable not only on offense, but on defense as well.
The Pirates defense was also very strong with their goal keeper. When the Hornets were pushing offensively, No. 1 Lance Park came through to save the game.
The Pirates head coach, Mark Schmidt, was very pleased with the way that his team performed under the intensity of the match.
“They attacked a little bit better than we did offensively,” said Schmidt. “But our defense was there to keep the game within reach.”
The Pirates water polo team just finished up a tournament at Cal Lutheran University (CLU), were they went 2-2, and Schmidt thought it helped them prepare not only for this game, but the rest of the season to play.
“We beat Cerritos and La Verne,” said Schmidt. “Cerritos was a bigger win however, because that helps set up for post season ranking because they are another JC team.”
The Pirates will jump in the pool next at Citrus College on Oct. 1, with the game set to start at 4:15 p.m. The Pirates will return home to the Ventura College Aquatic center with a game against Los Angeles Valley College that game is also set to start at 4:15 p.m.
